Too much flatulence.
Posted on 01/06/2007 8:18:54 PM PST by blam
Anglers fear ban on 'cruel' live bait will spread
By Jasper Copping, Sunday Telegraph
Last Updated: 12:30am GMT 07/01/2007
Anglers are to be banned from using live fish as bait after politicians decided it was cruel.
The ban, which will apply in Scotland, has angered fishermen south of the border who believe it has handed a major victory to animal rights campaigners calling for similar legislation in the rest of Britain.
Steve Greenway, a leading angler from Staffordshire who has been on 105 fishing trips to Scotland, said: "If I thought live bait was cruel, I wouldn't use it. Where will it all end? Do you stop using maggots and worms as well?"
advertisement Mark Barrett, the general secretary of the Pike Anglers' Club of Great Britain, said: "To have the law change like this on your doorstep is going to be a concern for people in the rest of the UK."
The blanket ban was a last-minute amendment to the Aquaculture and Fisheries Bill, which has just passed through the Scottish Parliament without any objections.
It has already been strongly endorsed by Scotland's deputy environment minister Rhona Brankin and will pass through the legislature for a final time in the next three months before becoming law.
Green Party MSP Eleanor Scott, who is deputy convenor of the environment and rural affairs development committee and an architect of the Bill, said: "Anglers won't like me saying it, but fish do feel pain and we felt there was a cruelty issue here."
The politicians also believe live bait threatens fish stocks by introducing alien species into their habitats which may bring diseases and parasites.
Putting live small fish such as roach on a hook is a common tactic for catching larger, predatory fish like trout, perch and pike, which are drawn to the movement.
The coarse fishing industry contributes up to £7 million a year to the Scottish economy. Ron Woods, a policy officer from the Scottish Federation for Coarse Angling, said: "This will hurt fishing tourism."
But Yvonne Taylor, from People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, said the ban was a "massive first step" in the group's fight for one in the rest of Britain.
Angling is the nation's most popular participation sport, with an estimated four million devotees. In recent years their hobby has been increasingly targeted by animal rights activists. Last summer saw a spate of attacks on fishermen.
Scientists are divided on the issue of whether fish can feel pain.
I pity the poor fool who tries to stop my husband from fishing.
Good grief. This is a sign of too much affluence. If you have the time, energy, and mindset to even think about this stuff, then you have too much time on your hands.
You have got to be kidding me?
I pity the fool that tries to keep me from fishing. Only when they take bait from my cold dead fingers will I stop.
Half the fun of fishing in the coastal waters of the Gulf is throwing a cast net to catch your live bait and then using that bait to catch something of decent size for dinner.
In the UK do they ban TROP practice of cutting the throats of animals before Eid al Adha? I think not. Yet their week kneeked politicians will give them a pass.
I'm all for this ban. At night, when it's quiet, I hear the crickets screaming . . .
Amen to that...especially in the Gulf. Out here in Oregon the fly fishing lobby has hurt the "use anything" fishermen like me. Their motives are different than the environazis though. They are not looking to kill the sport, but simply look down their noses at the rest of us and have succeeded in changing legislation for a large number of lakes and rivers. Some bodies of water are not only flies only, that fly needs to be attached to fly line, which must be attached to a fly rod with a fly reel.....nuts.
Its funny to watch their reaction when I dunk worms in their hallowed fly fishing waters. I'm hoping to organize a movement to change my local hole to bait only.
LOL, thanks ... needed that!
Fish feel pain so we must stop killing them.
Human fetuses, on the other hand ...
Too much flatulence.
Last summer saw a spate of attacks on fishermen.Scientists are divided on the issue of whether fish can feel pain.
Well, we already know that fishermen can, frickin' hypocritical double-standard activist morons.
Meh yeah, Pogy's off the Belle Pass/Little Pass rocks and hope for some big specs/reds at same and the Fourchon rigs. It's like duck hunting, 3/4 the experience is calling the ducks into shooting range; especially if your're doing the calling for your kid.
Doesn't get any better than that!!!
I need a time machine, anyone?
So, if a tippet is attached to your zipper and goes to a baitcasting/spinning reel you should be ok, a flyline!
I think using live politicians for shark bait would vastly improve teh world.
Until then, I will continue to use live bait, as conditions warrent.
You left out the 'barbless hook' part of 'fly'.
The Holy Hole of the Rogue, etc. Barf! I just want fish on the table!
NO! For you profane minded FReepers from elsewhere, that has NOTHING to do with prostitution or homosexuality!
Scratch Scotland from my list of places to go for fishing. Cruelty to bait? Tell that to the fish who eat those baitfish as part of their normal diet. When they stop eating baitfish, I'll stop using them as bait.
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